Avant-Garde / Neo-Avant-Garde (Avant-Garde Critical Studies 17) (Avant Garde Critical Studies)

This collection of critical essays explores new approaches to the study of avant-garde literature and art, film and architecture. It offers a theoretical framework that avoids narrowly defined notions of the avant-garde. It takes into account the diversity of artistic aims and directions of the various avant-garde movements and encourages a wide and open exploration of the multifaceted and often contradictory nature of the great variety of avant-gardist innovations. Individual essays concentrate on cubist collage and dadaist photomontage, on abstract painting by members of the Dutch group De Stijl, on verbal chemistry and dadaist poetry and on body art from futurism to surrealism. In addition, the collection wishes to open up the discussion of the avant-garde to a thorough investigation of neo-avant-garde activities in the 1950s and 1960s. For decades the appreciation of neo-avant-garde art and literature, film and architecture suffered from a general and all-inclusive rebuke. This volume is designed to contribute to a breakthrough towards a more competent and more precise investigation of this research field. Contributions include a discussion of Warhol’s multiples as well as Duchamp’s editioned readymades, forms of concrete and digital poetry as well as the architectural “Non-Plan”. The main body of the volume is based on presentations and discussions of a three-day research seminar held at the University of Edinburgh in September 2002. The research group formed around the Avant-Garde Project at Edinburgh will continue with its efforts to elaborate a new theory of the avant-garde in the coming years. Contents Preface I. Theorising the Avant-Garde Dietrich SCHEUNEMANN: From Collage to the Multiple. On the Genealogy of Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde Rhys WILLIAMS: Wilhelm Worringer and the Historical Avant-Garde Hubert van den BERG: On the Historiographic Distinction between Historical and Neo-Avant-Garde II. Reviewing the Autonomy of Art Michael WHITE: Abstraction, Sublation and the Avant-Garde: The Case of De Stijl David HOPKINS: Sameness and Difference: Duchamp’s Editioned Readymades and the Neo-Avant-Garde Ben HIGHMORE: Paint it Black: Ad Reinhardt’s Paradoxical Avant-Gardism III. On the Alchemy of the Word Keith ASPLEY: Verbal Chemistry and Concrete Poetry Anna SCHAFFNER: How the Letters Learnt to Dance: On Language Dissection in Dadaist, Concrete and Digital Poetry Jacob EDMOND: American Language Poetry and the Definition of the Avant-Garde IV. Body Arts Günter BERGHAUS: From Futurism to Neo-Futurism: Continuities and New Departures in Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde Performance Olga TAXIDOU: Actor or Puppet: The Body in the Theatres of the Avant-Garde Uta FELTEN: Fragmentation of the Body in Spanish Surrealism V. The Vanguard in Cinema and Architecture David MACRAE: The Surface of Illusion: Avant-Garde Apperception and Antecedence in Structural/Materialist Film Gérard LEBLANC: What Avant-Garde? Richard WILLIAMS: The Limits of “Non-Plan”: Architecture and the Avant-Garde VI. Crossing the Genres Jennifer VALCKE: Montage in the Arts: A Reassessment Tania ØRUM: Means and Metaphors of Change: Technology and the Danish Avant-Garde of the 1960s Klaus BEEKMAN: Literature under the Impact of Film: On Dutch Author-Critics of the Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde List of Illustrations Index Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 10 I. Theorising the Avant-Garde......Page 14 From Collage to the Multiple. On the Genealogy of Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde......Page 16 Wilhelm Worringer and the Historical Avant-Garde......Page 50 On the Historiographic Distinction between Historical and Neo-Avant-Garde......Page 64 II. Reviewing the Autonomy of Art......Page 76 Abstraction, Sublation and the Avant-Garde: The Case of De Stijl......Page 78 Sameness and Difference: Duchamp's Editioned Readymades and the Neo-Avant-Garde......Page 92 Paint it Black: Ad Reinhardt's Paradoxical Avant-Gardism......Page 110 III. On the Alchemy of the Word......Page 130 Verbal Chemistry and Concrete Poetry......Page 132 How the Letters Learnt to Dance: On Language Dissection in Dadaist, Concrete and Digital Poetry......Page 150 American Language Poetry and the Definition of the Avant-Garde......Page 174 IV. Body Arts......Page 194 From Futurism to Neo-Futurism: Continuities and New Departures in Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde Performance......Page 196 Actor or Puppet: The Body in the Theatres of the Avant-Garde......Page 226 Fragmentation of the Body in Spanish Surrealism......Page 242 V. The Vanguard in Cinema and Architecture......Page 254 The Surface of Illusion: Avant-Garde Apperception and Antecedence in Structural/Materialist Film......Page 256 What Avant-Garde?......Page 274 The Limits of "Non-Plan": Architecture and the Avant-Garde......Page 284 VI. Crossing the Genres......Page 298 Montage in the Arts: A Reassessment......Page 300 Means and Metaphors of Change: Technology and the Danish Avant-Garde of the 1960s......Page 312 Literature under the Impact of Film: On Dutch Author-Critics of the Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde......Page 326 List of Illustrations......Page 338 B......Page 340 C......Page 341 G......Page 342 K......Page 343 M......Page 344 R......Page 345 T......Page 346 Z......Page 347 Contents 6 Preface 10 I. Theorising the Avant-Garde 14 From Collage to the Multiple. On the Genealogy of Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde 16 Wilhelm Worringer and the Historical Avant-Garde 50 On the Historiographic Distinction between Historical and Neo-Avant-Garde 64 II. Reviewing the Autonomy of Art 76 Abstraction, Sublation and the Avant-Garde: The Case of De Stijl 78 Sameness and Difference: Duchamp's Editioned Readymades and the Neo-Avant-Garde 92 Paint it Black: Ad Reinhardt's Paradoxical Avant-Gardism 110 III. On the Alchemy of the Word 130 Verbal Chemistry and Concrete Poetry 132 How the Letters Learnt to Dance: On Language Dissection in Dadaist, Concrete and Digital Poetry 150 American Language Poetry and the Definition of the Avant-Garde 174 IV. Body Arts 194 From Futurism to Neo-Futurism: Continuities and New Departures in Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde Performance 196 Actor or Puppet: The Body in the Theatres of the Avant-Garde 226 Fragmentation of the Body in Spanish Surrealism 242 V. The Vanguard in Cinema and Architecture 254 The Surface of Illusion: Avant-Garde Apperception and Antecedence in Structural/Materialist Film 256 What Avant-Garde? 274 The Limits of "Non-Plan": Architecture and the Avant-Garde 284 VI. Crossing the Genres 298 Montage in the Arts: A Reassessment 300 Means and Metaphors of Change: Technology and the Danish Avant-Garde of the 1960s 312 Literature under the Impact of Film: On Dutch Author-Critics of the Avant-Garde and Neo-Avant-Garde 326 List of Illustrations 338 Index 340 A 340 B 340 C 341 D 342 E 342 F 342 G 342 H 343 I 343 J 343 K 343 L 344 M 344 N 345 O 345 P 345 Q 345 R 345 S 346 T 346 V 347 W 347 Y 347 Z 347 In her charming book Window Shopping Anne Friedberg refers to the avant-garde as "a troubling third term" the two other terms, supposedly troublefree, being modernism and postmodernism (Friedberg 1994: 162).